Fraying The Edges
by Kasigi Omi
Summary: Heero comes home, but something isn't quite right. Some shounen ai (hence the rating) 2+1


Note: Based on a real life incident, sorta. Guess what I did to inspire this story! Anyone who can guess, gets a cookie. This is one of the last pieces of GW fiction I wrote, and I'm quite proud of it. I hope you enjoy. (Oh yeah, the charas aren't mine!)  
  
  
  
Fraying the Edges  
  
  
  
Heero instantly knew there was something wrong. A nervous feeling ran through his body, starting at the base of his spine and rushing upwards, causing him to shiver involuntarily. From there, it made the hair at the back of his neck bristle and stand on end. Then it went down to his chest, quickening his heart rate and breathing, and finally it settled in the pit of his stomach, like a huge lump of one of those cheeseburgers Duo loved so much.  
  
Slowly he advanced into the house, looking left and right for some sign of one of his fellow Preventers, namely one with a long brown braid. Duo. Where was he anyway? He usually heard Heero come in and dropped whatever he was doing to greet him. Once he had even seen him at the end of the hall at the office and literally dropped everything, which had been a folder full of important files, (it had taken Wufei hours to get them all reorganized) and sprinted down the hall to launch himself into Heero's arms in an overly enthusiastic hug. Today Heero returned from a series of missions that had kept him away for three months, and Duo was nowhere to be found. This only served to make Heero more agitated.  
  
He reached the living room of the small house that all five ex-Gundam pilots were sharing, and found Quatre, Trowa and Wufei. They were all sitting and watching the doorway. Apparently they had heard him come in and had been waiting to see him. The looks on their faces worried Heero further. Wufei looked at Heero with an uncharacteristically soft, even sympathetic, expression on his face, as if he expected him to be hearing bad news soon, and pitied him for it. Trowa wouldn't meet Heero's eyes. He just kept rubbing Quatre's back gently, trying to soothe him. But it was the look on Quatre's face that caused the sweat to pop out on Heero's forehead.  
  
"Duo?" he choked out past the lump in his throat. He had been informed recently that Duo had gone out on a very dangerous mission. Headquarters had never told him how it had turned out.  
  
"I'm sorry, Heero. We tried to stop him, but he wouldn't listen, and now.." Quatre trailed off as fresh tears leapt to fill his already red- rimmed eyes.  
  
"No. Oh no," Heero breathed his protest to the still air in the silent room. Before he could break down and cry however, he was nearly bowled over from behind.  
  
"Hey pal! You're finally back!" the familiar voice enthused.  
  
"Duo!" Heero gasped, spinning around and pulling him to him in a crushing embrace. Burying his face in Duo's neck and locking his arms firmly around Duo's back, Heero tried desperately to gain control of his feelings. He had thought Duo was gone forever, but here the braided baka was, whole and healthy and annoying as always. So what had Quatre been so upset about?  
  
"Geez, Heero. I didn't mean to scare you that bad. I only snuck up behind you! I do that all the time! What's gotten into you?"  
  
"Ask Quatre what's gotten into him. He's upset about something and he got me worried," Heero muttered, face still pressed to Duo.  
  
"Oh, that. Yeah, well, he's been upset for the last week. What did he say?"  
  
Heero pulled back slightly and looked up into Duo's face. He frowned momentarily as something about Duo didn't look quite right. That, and he was still resentful that Duo had had that growth spurt and was now taller than him. "He never said what was wrong. Only that they had tried to stop you from doing something, but you had done it anyway. Say, did you braid your hair in a new way?"  
  
The line of conversation was cut off by Quatre wailing loudly. "Shh," Trowa whispered to his little love, who stopped bawling, but continued to sniffle periodically. As for Wufei, he merely picked up a video disk recorder from where it sat on the floor next to him and turned it on, pointing it at Heero and Duo.  
  
Duo groaned, "Wu, put that away. It's not funny."  
  
"Not yet, Maxwell. But it will be very soon."  
  
"This is revenge, isn't it?"  
  
"Would the sound of a file full of classified documents hitting the floor and scattering everywhere aid your memory?"  
  
"I said I was sorry!"  
  
"You never once volunteered to help."  
  
"I wasn't that sorry," Duo conceded. "Fine. Record it. I doubt much will happen anyway. This is Heero Yuy we're talking about here."  
  
"I think he will be more upset than you realize," Wufei said knowingly, adjusting the focus. Quatre began sobbing again in the background.  
  
"What is he talking about, Duo?" The strange heavy feeling in his stomach was back, and he didn't like it one bit.  
  
"Well, it's like this Heero. Actually, I think I'll just show you. Observe." Duo turned around so his back faced Heero.  
  
"You cut your braid off," Heero observed with a clinical detachment.  
  
Duo turned back around. "Yeah. I've had it for so long, and it was a real pain to take care of! Washing and drying was a real hassle, and on my last mission I got it caught on a ladder. Not only did it hurt, but I almost got shot. Basically, I was ready for a change. I was tired of dealing with it, and frankly, getting mistaken for a girl when someone sees me from behind was just plain embarrassing. I think Quatre was more upset than I was! I love my hair short!" To demonstrate, Duo ran a long fingered hand through his shortened bangs and swept it back through his short, slightly spiky hair.  
  
"As long as you're happy," Heero nodded.  
  
"You always did say my braid was inefficient!" Duo laughed. "A few times you even told me to cut it!"  
  
"I didn't ever mean it!" Heero suddenly wailed and collapsed to his knees on the carpet, shoulders shaking and tears rolling down his cheeks.  
  
This reaction only made Quatre cry harder, Trowa groan, Wufei smirk triumphantly and Duo stare in shock. Kneeling down next to him, Duo put his hand on Heero's shoulder. "You okay, pal?"  
  
"Where is it?" Heero demanded in a shaky voice.  
  
"Where is what?" Duo asked, completely baffled.  
  
"The braid. Where is it?"  
  
"Um, on the desk in my room. Why?"  
  
"I want to see it."  
  
"Okay.." Still completely confused, Duo stood and went to get his braid. He returned two minutes later carrying the long clump of hair. It had been tied together at both ends so it wouldn't come undone now that it was no longer rooted at one end.  
  
With shaking hands, Heero took it from Duo and pressed it against his cheek, tears soaking into the fine, chestnut strands. "It's not fair," he sobbed. "I never got the chance to brush it, or braid it. I never got to run my hands through it, or wash it. I never got to see Duo wearing his hair down without a shirt on. I never got to feel it brushing against my hot, bare skin as Duo and I made love. Never. NEVER!!!!!"  
  
"Um, excuse me? Made love?" Duo blinked several times, not quite registering what Heero had just said.  
  
"Oh Heero! Please stop crying!" Quatre suddenly burst out, pulling away from Trowa and sitting on the floor next to Heero, pulling the taller Japanese boy into his lap and rocking him gently.  
  
"You were right. The reaction was more than I would have expected from him," Duo admitted to Wufei, before passing out cold on the floor from shock. Apparently Heero's words had finally connected in the synapses in his brain and he had realized how his best friend really felt about him.  
  
Several days passed during which: Quatre and Heero wore all black in mourning, and occasionally suggested a funeral for the braid, Wufei burst into uncontrollable fits of laughter whenever he saw Duo, Trowa did his usual stoic stuff and Duo shuffled around like a zombie because he was in shock.  
  
However, after about a month, everything settled back into its regular routine. Well, almost. Heero was known to sigh sadly whenever he saw Duo, and Duo avoided Heero as much as possible. Until one night when Heero cornered Duo in his room.  
  
"You've been avoiding me," Heero said. Not a question. A statement.  
  
"It's possible," Duo replied. He didn't lie, but he could evade the truth.  
  
"At first I didn't know why, until I was watching old home movies during the afternoon today. I was watching to see you with your braid, but at the end of one tape I saw the moment when I realized you had cut your hair. Duo, I didn't even notice as I said those things, and I was horribly embarrassed. Anyway, I figured out why you've been avoiding me lately, and I decided it's not getting us anywhere. Judging by the fact that you look like a deer caught in the headlights right now, I can already guess how you feel about it, but I want it stated in clear terms. Duo, I love you and want to have a relationship with you beyond the friendship we have now. How do you feel? And I want you to know, that if you're not interested, I can accept that and will never bring it up again. But I must know."  
  
"Heero," Duo began slowly, "I was shocked to hear you say those things, yes. I didn't know how to react. But with your bold admission to me right now, I think you have made several things clear to me."  
  
"What would those several things be?" Heero couldn't stop his hands from fidgeting with the bottom of his shirt. He was so nervous it wasn't even funny.  
  
"I figured out that," Duo was standing right in front of him now, gently tilting his chin up, "It doesn't bother me as much as I had expected it to." And with that, Duo kissed him.  
  
As the kiss deepened, Heero ran his hands up and over Duo's shoulders, then trailed them up the back of his neck and into the short, soft hair. With a strangled sob, he pulled away and fled from the room, calling, "I'm sorry Duo! It's too soon for me!"  
  
Shaking his head in a mixture of amusement, disgust and annoyance, Duo sighed. "The only guy I've ever met who needs time to get over his breakup with someone else's hair!"  
  
He then picked a small black box up from its' place on his deck and pulled open the lid. Gently he lifted an object from the velvet lined interior. Setting the box down, he held the object with one hand and ran the fingers of his other hand over the soft curves. His lip trembling slightly, he put the braid back in its' box. "I didn't regret it until Heero started crying!" Quickly he turned the lights off and his music up, before climbing onto his bed and hiding under the covers so no one could see him cry.  
  
Elsewhere, Wufei watched from behind his camera as Heero walked around with a black veil on, chanting hymns to the dead in every language he knew, and that was quite a few. His comrades could be so funny sometimes! 


End file.
